Ewan Gurr is a man on a mission.
It’s 10 years since he dedicated his life to managing Dundee’s Foodbank on the city’s Hilltown.
But having helped set up 50 foodbanks across the country since taking over as Trussell Trust Scotland network manager in 2012, he believes the time has come to get the truly “harrowing” human stories of foodbank users into the nation’s living rooms.
According to the Westminster government the economy is on the up.
And yet more than one million people were given emergency food in Britain last year and the numbers are growing.
In Scotland the Trussell Trust provided food for 117,689 people in the last financial year, up from 71,428 the year before and 14,318 before that. That compares with just 5,726 in 2011/12.
The trust puts the 400% spike from 2012 onwards largely down to the government’s welfare reform programme a combination of benefit delays, benefit changes and low income.
But it’s the human stories of ordinary hard working folk forced into using foodbanks that paint the true picture, according to Ewan, who hopes a new documentary, being screened on BBC One on Monday night will help get the “heart rending” situation across.
The Foodbank:Scotland’s Hidden Hunger, made by Friel Kean Films, was filmed over six months and goes to the frontline of food poverty at Scotland’s busiest foodbank in Dundee.
In Dundee alone, 60 tonnes of food was distributed to more than 7000 people across the city last year thanks to the generous donations of the Dundee public and businesses.
The busy volunteers from the Trussell Trust are seen providing food to a wide range of people, from former professionals to long-term unemployed and people with mental health issues.
Among those featured is Charlie, who after being a victim of violent assault and robbery, is left with no money to buy food.
The documentary also features single dad Billy, who after being out of work for a long spell after a career in medical sales, has to get help from the foodbank to feed his four-year-old son Jack.
Billy says: “I had to scrape pennies from our piggybank to pay for my son’s snack at nurseryIt is pretty tough. It’s a choice of heating or food.”
In an interview with The Courier at the Trussell Trust’s headquarters at The Factory Skatepark in Dundee, Ewan, 29, said he hoped the programme would further illuminate the plight of the many unemployed and working poor who are simply struggling to keep their heads above water.
He is also keeping pressure on politicians to do something about the root causes of the problem.
He said: “Since I took over at the Trussell Trust four years ago, we’ve now got 50 foodbanks across Scotland and 120 centres. We went out and sold a concept to communities across Scotland. We now have a presence in 27 of the 30 local authorities in Scotland.
“But the tragedy of that is that despite having such a significant presence, we’ve seen demand for emergency food relief increase disproportionately to the number of centres that we’ve set up.
“In the last financial year we provided food based on more than 117,000 referrals and 36,000 of them were children. That’s a jarring figure.”
Ewan says the three main reasons are benefit delays, benefit changes and low income. But what underpins that is a 20% rise in food prices over the last five years. Fuel prices have risen by over 30% in the same period. Another factor, he says, is the increasingly insecure nature of work, including zero hour contracts, of which he has had direct experience.
The third thing, that’s indisputable for him, is welfare reform.
He said:“I was in a meeting yesterday with a number of voluntary organisation representatives and David Mundell, the secretary of state for Scotland, the one Conservative MP, was presenting.
“David and I fundamentally disagree on one thing and it’s whether or not demand for emergency food is directly related to welfare reform. It’s a fundamental but respectful disagreement.
“But the thing for us is if you are going to try and change the political trajectory, and dispute a claim, you’ve got to provide the evidence. So I’m going to collect the stories of the mother who has to give up breastfeeding after six weeks due to malnutrition. I’m going to tell him about the father of four that’s tried to take his life twice in the last 18 months because he’s had a 14% deduction in his housing benefit because of a spare bedroom. You’ve got to confront politicians with these stories. I’m not going to stand with a placard at a distance.
“It’s incumbent upon the third sector to actually bring the stories out. That’s why this documentary is so crucial. It’s giving people a window. These stories are coming straight into your house.”
*The Foodbank:Scotland’s Hidden Hunger is screened on BBC One Scotland on Monday at 9pm